Girl who delighted in silver made career of metal art

News-Times, The (Danbury, CT)

Published
8:00 pm EDT, Monday, September 20, 2004

By the next summer, she was enrolled in a silversmithing class at Peters Valley, N.J., and she has never stopped producing works in silver since.
"The bracelet was a gift from my parents," Wengenroth recalled. "My teaching and art come from them. They are both artists and to this day, they are my very best friends."
As a child, Wengenroth had dabbled in crochet and macram�. It was the 1970s; art and craft fairs were flourishing and so was the young girl's craft. Once she touched silver, a bond was established and by 16 she was selling her jewelry pieces at the Long Island Street Fair and the Crafts Island Fair in New York.
"I remember being scolded by other craftspeople at the fairs because I would sell a pendant for $12 that they couldn't afford to sell for that price," Wengenroth said. "I was a child, living at home. I was just thrilled to sell my pieces. They were twisted iron rings and agate pendants. It was the 1970s and those things sold."
Attending a school that held classes throughout New York City and the five boroughs, called City As School, the young Wengenroth found herself apprenticing to some of the city's leading contemporary jewelers, including Don Thomas. She also became the assistant to the director of the school and accompanied him on interviews to major television stations. She was receiving a unique education that would serve her well.
In college, Wengenroth studied sculpture and later silversmithing, receiving a BFA in gold and silversmithing from SUNY-New Paltz.
"I got to study with some of the best silversmiths in the country," she noted. "Kurt Matzdork and Bob Ebendorf were my teachers at New Paltz."
After graduation, in 1983, Wengenroth opened "S/W Metalsmiths," a wholesale jewelry and giftware business selling to more than 100 accounts in the United States and abroad. The business was a success, doubling its annual gross income for five consecutive years.
But Wengenroth, by that time, had found a new career that excited her as much as creating silver art - teaching others.
"I began teaching while I had the business so I could find and hire my best students," she recalled. "I've been teaching ever since."
That was 15 years ago. Today, Wengenroth teaches classes at Silvermine School of Art in New Canaan. She has, over the years, taught at The Woodstock Guild, Westchester Community Colleges in New York, the Brookfield Craft Center and Fletcher Farm in Vermont, among other schools.
Wengenroth now lives in Ridgefield and maintains her studio work, creating limited edition and one-of-a-kind pieces for art shows. Her pieces have an elegance about them.
"People should feel very elegant when using my pieces," she said, showing a set of sterling silver cake servers and a set of crystal and silver decanters. "When creating these pieces by hand, you should make them better, make them elegant. Why just duplicate the normal?"
Wengenroth quoted an old friend as she spoke of the techniques of creating in silver.
"It's like playing a chess match where you have to think steps ahead or you back yourself into a corner," she quoted. "There's a tremendous learning curve to metal work. I start my students in copper, nickel and brass. You'll make a lot of mistakes as you learn."
While Wengenroth still creates jewelry, her true interest is in creating larger pieces. She has, she noted, been creating in silver for 29 years and enjoys pushing the limits of what she can create in the metal.
"My parents know when I need a push in my creative endeavors, and, for their 50th wedding anniversary, they asked me to create an elegant candelabra for them," Wengenroth said. "I took rods of silver and hand-rolled them to stretch them into the arms. Then I placed holes around the bases of each taper to create rays of light radiating to the base."
Wengenroth has created sculptural pieces, linking cream and sugar holders, a silver chalice for a local tabernacle and numerous pieces that draw on her engineering background. She also studied engineering while in art school and comes from a family of architects.
Wengenroth offers private classes, creates silver pieces on commission and special order. In November she will give a demonstration at the Jewish Community Center in Sherman on Nov. 6 and will appear with her art at The Sculpture Barn in New Fairfield on Nov. 13. She is taking a workshop to Mexico through Silvermine School of Art in January 2005.